Routines are like Old Friends…
One of the things I like about life, and our Salsa show, is a solid routine. There is something comforting in a routine. Knowing the pace, the time, the payoff. Some people don’t like routines, they want something different everyday, something exciting and challenging. But for me routines are like old friends, you can count on them.
I think what happens, like anything, we take our routines for granted. What was once an exciting ride to the beach can become boring. Some people don’t even see the ocean while driving along the shore. Come on people, start living your lives, quit waiting for all the stars to line up, they wont!
Showtime………………
First stop, Starbucks, hello to our friends, maybe a blueberry muffin, maybe a sandwich, today just the coffee.
Next stop the hotel. This is where the routine comes alive. Everything in its place, tequila shot glasses poured, fruit and vegetables cut and sliced and filled, and always a new face, a new waiter. Do we have to train him again?
Ingredients are ready, the drinks are poured and in a few minutes 50-100 people will be waiting in line to join the show.
“Your aprons and chef hats are on your chairs, please put them on when you are seated!”
All routine, all organized – but wait, then something starts to happen…that annoying little thing, like wind or rain, all interrupt our wonderful routine. The timing starts to change, I glance at my watch and realize we might have to move the entire show from outside to inside in 20 minutes. I call the dock to see if we can hold the passengers a few more minutes, then that gripping feeling ravishes my body when they say, “the buses just left!”
I notice rain falling over the ocean in the distance. I stop and look up at the clouds and waiting to see which way the rain is moving……then Holy Guacamole just like that its coming our way. Who would arrive first the passengers or the rain. No time to wonder, lets move inside fast! Wait , we are in Mexico nothing happens fast,Holy Guacamole again, lets just move!…………
I run to find help, anybody, everybody, I pass the hotel owners sitting comfortably having breakfast and with a shrill I ask them for all hands on deck.
The bellboys, the handymen, everybody starts to pick up round tables of 8 , entirely covered with dishes, food and drinks and table after table get moved over to a new enclosed area. Wooden bar chairs are flying out of the bar on one side and plastic table chairs are shuffled in through the other.
Everyone goes into first gear, Okay well, Pamela and I go into first gear, but since we are driving it is okay that everyone else rides alongside………..so much to do, we have to be ready, lets go……….. lets go….
The sound system is dragged in and the final touches are added to each table.
Pamela and I look at each other and realize we have just done the impossible AGAIN!
Last week we took over the lobby of the hotel. It was completely out of routine, our sweet wonderful routine. Hotel guests looked bewildered stepping off the elevator into a lobby of 86 chefs complete with chef hats ,aprons and those fantastic margarita smiles ,all of them shouting “OLE!’.
I wondered what the new arriving hotel guests thought when the taxi pulled up and close to a hundred chefs were all dancing in the lobby. They probably thought is was some kind of swinging place, this hotel. “Nah couldn’t be the welcoming committee.”
Routines are great and anytime we fall out of routine we are tested.
Next time you feel like complaining about your routine, stop and think about how lucky you really are to have a reasonably safe life without to much change in your routines.
Remember routines are responsibilities cousin, and when we can live a responsible life people can count on us. And when people can count on us they can trust us, after all isn’t that what we all want anyway, for people to trust us and depend on us.
What makes my life so great is that from the moment everyone arrives,while I search through my opening dialogue, I kiss my sweet routine for being there with me. I can count on my routine most days. But when routines are lost I realize it a passing adventure I need to stand up to.
So next time your bored or feeling dumpy, think about all the things that are routine in your life. Each one a friend, with a subtle tap on your shoulder that whispers ” hey lucky you” relax, everything is going according to routine.
Salsa and Salsa Mazatlan 